Ben Olson was so happy to have Norm Chow on board, the UCLA quarterback said he felt like greeting the Bruins’ new offensive coordinator with flowers.

Olson’s sentiment was widely shared in the UCLA football program after it was announced Monday that Chow, the former USC assistant who has one of the college game’s most respected offensive minds, had accepted a position on new head coach Rick Neuheisel’s staff.

“I’m thrilled to death to have the chance to work with coach Chow,” said Olson, who will compete with Patrick Cowan for the starting spot. “It’s something that I’ve wanted for a while now, and to finally have things work out, it’s a huge blessing. I can’t remember when I was this excited about football.”

Neuheisel has a formidable group of coordinators to recruit and game plan with in Chow and defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker. The oddity of the situation is that Chow interviewed for UCLA’s head coaching position, and Walker was a finalist, for the job Neuheisel landed.

“The three of us are going to be partners, partners on a start-up company that has a huge, huge upside,” Neuheisel said. “We’re going to share and commiserate equally, and together. That’s what I sold.”

In a stroke of incredible fortune, Chow became a viable – not to mention affordable – option when he was fired last week as the Tennessee Titans’ offensive coordinator. Chow, who turns 62 in May, is guaranteed $1 million in each of the next two seasons, with his UCLA salary being deducted from what Tennessee owes him.

Neuheisel said parameters of Chow’s deal with UCLA still need to be worked out.

“I tried to get him to sign up for 25 years but he wouldn’t go that far,” Neuheisel said. “The parameters of the contract will be discussed, but we hope to have Norm stay for a long, long time.”

Chow, the USC offensive coordinator when Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart won the Heisman Trophy, has a long-standing reputation as being a master game-planner and play-caller. Although Neuheisel, a former quarterback, is an offensive coach, he said he envisioned an “egoless” partnership.

“(Chow) will be the offensive coordinator, he’ll be the signal-caller, and he’ll be the architect of what we hope will be one of the most explosive offenses in all of college football,” Neuheisel said. “We are absolutely elated. This is a huge day for the Bruins, and I’m thrilled Norm and his family have decided to join us.”

Chow designed USC’s potent offense when it averaged at least 35 points per game for three straight seasons, including 41.1points per game in 2003. But there were reports Chow and USC coach Pete Carroll did not get along, which hastened Chow’s move from the Trojans to the Titans after the 2004 season.

“I’m not someone, and never have been, who needs power or control,” Chow said. “When you coordinate an offense, I think that word means a lot. You put everybody’s thoughts together. You coordinate it all. Everyone’s thoughts, everybody’s input, is important.

“Obviously, on Saturday afternoon you don’t have a chance for a round-table discussion every time a call needs to be made, but that call is made after spending many hours together as a staff.”

An integral part of Chow’s recruitment was Walker. The two worked together at BYU in 1994, and at USC in 2001, and Neuheisel leaned on that relationship.

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